'marketing' on Serious Eats

To show that their burgers are so good customers can't wait to unwrap them before digging in, Brazilian fast food burger chain Bob's wrapped their burgers in edible "paper" as part of a recent marketing campaign. More

Last Wednesday McDonald's used the hashtag #McDStories two times during a Twitter campaign promoting McDonald's suppliers with the intention of getting people on Twitter to share their feel good McDonald's stories. Of course, it didn't turn out that way—the hashtag encouraged people to post negative tweets about McDonald's. More

Last Wednesday Starbucks announced that they're updating the green logo, dropping the words "Starbucks Coffee" around the iconic wavy-haired Siren lady. Since the news broke, people seem split about the design. Why would they change it when, um, there was nothing wrong with it? While others like the clean, streamlined look. What do you think? Care at all? More

Remember the good ole days when beer commercials didn't portray women as shrewish, crazyfaced people? When they would flop around in congo lines, usually string bikini-clad? According to Erin Gibson, host of Current TV's show Modern Lady, those days are over. "Women in beer commercials have gone from big-boobied eye candy to the enemy." (And that "to the enemy" part was in a slow-mo voice, which there should be a font for.) According to Gibson, humiliating ladyfolk physically or psychologically is the norm for beer companies these days. Have you noticed a shift in the representation of women in beer ads?More

You've gotta hand it to Domino's. The pizza chain is approaching Burger King levels when it comes to viral marketing stunts. In this video they've concocted elaborate personalized ad campaigns for three men who still hadn't tried the new pizza, creating custom billboards and radio spots and going as far as flashing messages on a traffic alert sign and sending up an airplane banner.More

Money Pizza is an promotional concept for an imaginary pizza chain that sells a $5 pizza. The magnetic fridge-based coin keeper holds $5 in change. As its creator, artist Matt Brown, says, "The concept eliminates the shame people feel when they pay for something all in change. No counting involved with this, both cashier and customer know exactly how much money there is on that pie." Of course you're still left scrounging for the tip. [via EMD]... More

Remember Murphy-Goode, the Sonoma County, California, winery that gained widespread attention in the food blogosphere through its search for a social-media maven? The winery dangled a six-month, $60K job with free housing in exchange for someone's skills in marketing the operation via the interwebs. Fifty finalists have been chosen and now appear on the company's website. [via 7x7]... More

"So ladies, just relax; someday your prince is gonna come and he's gonna bring a fun product and when he does you'll live happily ever after!" —Sarah Haskins What products is Sarah Haskins of Target Women talking about? Oh, you know—cream cheese, frozen rolls, milk. The things women love! Or the things advertisers want women to love. Same difference. Watch the video after the jump.... More

This probably won't save newspapers, but might keep them afloat a few more minutes: lickable ads. The marketing crew behind newspaper ink giant U.S. Ink Corp. have created Taste-It Notes, a peel-and-taste strip, in the same vein as those Listerine strips, that hopes to zazz up the print advertising slump. The company said 1.5 million people have tried Taste-It Notes and 59% were more likely to buy the product after. So far Campbell's Soup and Welch's have signed up for the new gimmick. People like to lick stuff, but we'll see about this one. [via Dealscape]... More

KFC is becoming the first fast-food giant to get into the pothole-fixing advertising world. In five major U.S. cities, a man dressed up as Colonel Sanders, and a more pothole-knowledgeable professional crew, will fix up the streets, but not without leaving a mark. "Re-Freshed by KFC" will be printed over the late hole in an eye-catching, but non-permanent, street chalk. According to KFC, there's an estimated 350 million potholes on U.S. roads. And think of how many times you choke on fried chicken when driving over them! The city is happy, the people driving by subconsciously swerve to the nearest KFC, and a man in white wearing a head-protecting construction worker helmet stands in the middle of street. This seems... More

Quaker ad at the corner of 49th Street and 9th Avenue in New York City I first spotted the new Quaker oat campaign last weekend on a huge billboard in Manhattan facing the Hudson. "Go humans, go." Just three words next to a close-up face shot of the iconic William Penn. His smile is creepy, but I guess you can get away with creepy when you're a figurehead for warm bowls of breakfast goop. Calling us humans though? That somehow brings him back to creepy status. Is he differentiating us from aliens? And where are we going? To a twisted oatmeal cult land where we all wear Quaker hats and have awesome cholesterol? (Not that I wouldn't mind checking... More

The Whopper Sacrifice—in which you get a free Whopper for jettisoning ten friends on Facebook—has inspired one person to put up an ad on Craigslist looking for people to friend only to turn around defriend. [via So Good]... More

In the continuing saga of Burger King's questionable marketing campaigns, Burger King is now offering a free Whopper if you unfriend 10 people on Facebook. Use the WHOPPER® Sacrifice application on Facebook to get started. Maybe you have 10... More

Last Tuesday, about 15,000 people went to the Osaka opening of Quarter Pounder, McDonald's unbranded Quarter Pounder-only chain in Japan. But 1,000 of those people were hired by a marketing company to wait in line, "including the first 20 to... More

And It Smells Nothing Like Burgers Thanks to Nick Solares, who picked up some vials of Burger King's Flame body spray, we were all able to get a whiff and issue these smelling notes. I waved the vial under the... More

For all those times you wished you could smell like a burger without the hassle of getting a real burger, Burger King has the thing for you: FLAME body spray. The WHOPPER® sandwich is America's Favorite burger. FLAME™ by... More

Faraway look at the broccoli bag (bottom right). So easy to miss the faces. Upon closer inspection of a Cascadian Farm bag of frozen broccoli florets, blogger Alicia Carrier of bread & honey noticed tiny freakish faces popping out. She needed her macro lens to confirm such weirdness. Talk about a real-life scene from Honey I Shrunk the Kids! Remember when the kids are drowning in a bowl of Cheerios and daddy Rick Moranis almost swallows them? Tiny things are cute by nature, but when they have faces that are ecstatic to a disturbing degree, they instantly become terrifying.... More